Wading pool



Sept. 26, 1961 w. P. NAIL 3,001,207

WADING POOL Filed July 17, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INyENTOR WALTE R F! NAIL W. P. NAIL WADING POOL Sept. 26, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 17, 1957 IN\/ EN TUR WALTER P NAIL g?! 9 Waltei P. Nail, 54 Osler Ave., Toronto 9,

"of a plurality of individual strips, or

form an annular air receiving rations are then interfitted to from the following 3,001,207 WADING POOL Ontario, Canada Filed July 17, 1957, Ser. No. 672,388 3 Claims. (Cl. 4-172) This invention relates to improvements in wading pools and the like for children, and more particularly to pools of this nature made from plastic.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a simplified pool construction which will greatly facilitate able material, which construction will enable the pool to be fabricated with a simple bar seal, eliminating the necessity for expensive dies or other equipment.

The principal feature of the invention resides in forming the pool from a longitudinal strip or band of material having flaps, tabs, or serrations along one longitudinal edge, at least a portion ofthe width of the strip being utilized to form an inflatable ring or rings forming the wall of the pool and the flaps, tabs or serrations being as sembled in inter-fitting relation to form the bottom of the pool.

It Will be understood that in the preferred form of "the invention the strip and edge tabs will be constituted by a single piece of material, preferably a heat scalable plastic, but the strip may be a composite one made up the tabsmay be separate pieces of material secured at intervals to theone strip edge.

In the preferred and simplest method of forming the pool, the strip first has its ends connected to form a ring and at least a portion of the material of the ring excluding the tabs or serrations is rolled and sealed on itself to chamber or chambers constituting the inflatable wall rings, and the tabs or serform the pool bottom and are sealed in bottom interfitting relation.

By selecting the shape and spacing of the edge flaps or tabs a control of the ultimate shape of the pool can {be achieved without in any way complicating the manu- J facture.

.These and other objects and features will be understood detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a wading pool constructed in accordance with the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a plan view showing the band or strip with the serrated edge to provide bottom tabs from which the pool of FIGURE 1 is constructed;

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view illustrating the first step of joining the ends of the band in the construction of the pool;

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view illustrating the subsequent step of rolling a portion of the width of the endless band of FIGURE 3 to form an inflatable ring;

FIGURE 5 is a vertical sectional view on the line 5-5 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view illustrating the assembling of the bottom flaps or tabs into interfitting relation prior to sealing to complete the pool;

FIGURE 7 is a perspective view similar to FIGURE Patented Sept. 26, 1961 may take, the band having rectangular edge flaps or tabs;

FIGURE 10 is a perspective view illustrating the first step in assembling the band of FIGURE E in the forming of a pool, and corresponds to FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 11 isa perspective view illustrating the second step in forming the band into the pool, and corresponds to FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 12 is a perspective view of the completed pool;

FIGURE 13 is a broken away plan view showing still an alternative form which the band or strip which is to form the pool may take in accordance with the invention.

With reference first to FIGURE 1, the pool comprises a wall generally designated at 1 'in the form of an inflatable ring inflated through a valve 2, and a bottom generally designated at 3. The construction of the pool will be understood from following the sequence of steps illustrated in FIGURES 2, 3, 4 and 6. The starting point is to provide a band or strip 4, FIGURE '2, which is preferably cut from a single piece of plastic material, preferably a suitable heat-sealable plastic of relatively heavy gauge.

The band or strip 4 has one longitudinal edge serrated or formed to provide a plurality of flaps, tabs or teeth 5. It will be appreciated that two such bands or strips 4'ma'y be cut from a single width of material so that the serrating of the longitudinal edge will not afford any waste material. It will also be understood that if the original material from which the band 4 is formed does not have sufficient width for the purpose, the flaps or tabs 5 may be sealed thereto along the dotted line 6 or, of course, alternatively, the band or strip 4 may comprise any alter native composite arrangement in which the components are sealed together. To facilitate manufacture, the strip or band 4 is preferably, however, provided with the flaps, tabs or teeth 5 in the initial stage, and then the strip ends are joined as at 7, FIGURE 3, to provide an endless band.

It is to be noted that the join 7 between the ends of the band 4 comprises a straight seam, and when the joint or seal is efliected by means of a heat seal, this straight seal can be effected by a simple bar.

Following the formation of the endless band or strip of FIGURE 3, the upper edge 8 of the strip is rolled downwardly to form a ring constituting the wall 1, this upper edge being sealed to the band or strip as at 9, FIGURE 5. Again, a seal around the pool to form the Wall 1 may be effected by a simple bar seal.

' Following the formation of the wall 1, the flaps, tabs or teeth 5 are folded inwardly of the wall into interiitting relation, as shown in FIGURE 6. The arrangement is such that each of the flaps 5 forms a quarter sector of the bottom. The free edges 10 of these flaps or tabs 5 are then sealed together to form the seals 11 indicated in FIGURE 1 to complete the bottom of the pool. Again, these seals 11 may be effected by a simple bar seal.

It will be appreciated that the forming of the pool in the method above described will enable a complete pool to be formed in its simplest form from a single piece of material assembled in subsequent steps with a simple arrangemeut of seals to provide an extremely economical pool to manufacture from both the standpoint of material and labour, and requiring simple equipment.

FIGURE 7 illustrates that the band or strip which, of course, may be of any desired width, may have the original inflatable ring formed by rolling over the upper viding an intermediate seal as at 13. The resulting pool, generally designated at 14, FIGURE 8, thus has a higher wall constituted by the multiple ring arrangement. It

will be understood, of course, that any number of rings may be provided as desired.

FIGURE 9 shows a strip 15 provided With rectangular flaps, tabs, or teeth 16, rather than the triangular flaps of FIGURE -2.

FIGURES l0 and l l illustrate the steps of forming the band or strip 15 into the pool generally designated at 17 in FIGURE 12, and it will be appreciated that the bottom formation of the pool will be of square configuration and will impart a controlling influence on the surrounding pool wall, and, hence, pool shape.

In FIGURE 6 it will be seen that the fiaps 5, when assembled in bottom forming relation, have both the free edges of each flap contiguous with a corresponding free "edge of an adjoining flap, and the seals 1 1 are enjtirely between fiapedges, with a commonseal at the center of the pool.

With the band of FIGURE 9, or rather, in its continuous form in FIGURE 10, the edges 19 of the flaps 16 are FIGURE 13 illustrates a strip 22 in which the flaps, tabs or teeth 23 are relatively narrow with respect to those shown in FIGURE 2, with each flap being adapted to form susbtantially less than a quarter sector of the bottom, and with this arrangement, a pool of increased roundness or circular symmetry may be achieved. While the flaps 23 are shown as of equal size, it will be understood that they need not be so.

It will be understood that the pools shown and described above are for purposes of illustration only, and

many diflerent alterations and modifications utilizing the principles disclosed may be made within the spirit of the invention and without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim as my invention is: 1. In the manufacture of a wading pool from heat sealable sheet plastic material in the form of a thin walled tube, the step of severing a band of plastic material therefrom to define a straight edge perpendicular to the tube axis at one edge and a plurality of appended bottom panel sectionsof like outline and bounded by straight edges along the opposite edge perpendicular to the tube axis, the step of folding over the band of plastic material upon itself to present the straight edge towards the opposite edge and heat sealing the straight edge portion to the band completelytherearound to form a tubular air tight chamber, and the step of folding the appended sections inwardly of the chamber to disposed their next adjacent straight edges in overlapped relation and the step of heat sealing such overlapped straight edges together to provide a sustantially planar bottom wall with said tubular Wall to define a leak proof receptacle.

2. In the manufacture of a wading pool, the stepof providing a sheetof heat scalable plastic material in the form of an endless band having a straight edge perpendicular to the band axis at one edge, a plurality of appended panel sections of like outline and bounded by straight edges extending along the opposite edge, the step of folding over the band of plastic material upon itself to present the straight edge towards the opposite edge and heat sealing the straight edge portion to the band completely therearound to form a tubular airtight chamber, and the step of folding the appended sections inwardly of the chamber to dispose their next-adjacent straight edges in overlapped relation andthe step of heat sealing such overlapped straight edges together to provide a substantially planar'bottom wall with said tubular wall, to define a leak-proof receptacle.

3. In the manufacture of a wading pool, the step of providing an elongated rectangular strip of heat sealable sheet plastic material having a plurality of appended bottom forming panel sections of heat scalable sheet plastic material, said sections having a like outline and bounded by straight edges and extending along one longitudinal edge of the rectangular strip, then folding the rectangular strip upon itself to bring the shorter edges together and sealing said shorter edges together to form an endless band, then folding over the band upon itself to present the straight longitudinal edge towards the longitudinal edge having sections appended thereto and sealing the straight edge to the band completely therearound to form a tubular air tight chamber, and the step of folding the appended sections inwardly of the chamher to dispose their next adjacent straight edges in overlapped relation and the step of heat sealing such overlapped straight edges together to provide a substantially planar bottom wall with said tubular wall inflated, to define a leak proof receptacle.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

